Why Does Sarah Palin "Lie"?

[JDPriestly]

I posted this in response to the following DU Post (great post, I might add). But my comment was so far down on the thread that I am posting it a second time as an OP.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7052584

She lies because she thinks that her lies serve a greater purpose.

Of course, Sarah Palin does not perceive her lies as lies. She doesn't know what it feels like to really know her facts. If she doesn't know an answer, she just reaches into the grab-bag of her imagination and what she things are relevant words, into the collection of vague memories that inhabit her mind and says something that she hopes sounds intelligent. As long as she uses what she thinks are "right words," words that she associates with the topic at hand, she can get by even if she knows nothing about the topic at hand other than the few "right words" she has heard or read somewhere that she really can't remember.

She is doing her job -- which is being a Barbie for the religious right, a sort of doll for Jesus with a talk box in her mouth. In her belief system, it's OK to answer questions even when she doesn't know what she is talking about because she doesn't know what it is like to know what she is talking about. She only knows what it is like to sound like she knows what she is talking about.

The proof? Sarah Palin's troubled academic career. She moved from school to school for a reason. Were here teachers and professors not treating her as fairly as she would have liked? We have heard from Obama's college professor at Occidental College, but have we heard from any of Sarah Palin's professors? Do any of them really remember her? She probably always learned the minimum, dressed the little she knew up in language that resembled intelligent language when she took tests and felt she deserved better grades than she got.

I have to say one thing for Sarah Palin. I admire her ability to fake it. That is a quality that I personally never mastered very well. Sooner or later Sarah Palin will contradict herself in some big way, so big that she actually realizes that she doesn't know what she is talking about. Her personal moment of truth could come much later. I just hope it doesn't bring down the whole country.

The problem is that the Republican Party does not know what to do about her. So many Republican leaders are taking the easy way out by indulging and encouraging her. After all, she is creating crowds -- and distracting and confusing the news media as well as some Democrats. But, while Republican leaders are allowing her to bask in her book tour, she is building a following that is emotionally attached to her. It is going to be very difficult for the Republicans to call the game, drop her and put her in her place when the next primary season comes around. By complaining constantly about unfair treatment from the press, she is making it nearly impossible for rational Republicans (assuming there are any) to put her in her place.

Sarah Palin lies because she is so poorly educated and so incompetent that she doesn't know what it feels like to tell the truth. Her mind just doesn't know how to differentiate between facts and fantasy -- especially when the fantasy has a religious or messianic tinge.

Sarah Palin is like a first grader who is so nearsighted that he can't read the flash cards the teacher is holding up in arithmetic class. The child assumes that the teacher is playing a guessing game. Sarah Palin thinks that all these people on TV are just as stupid as she is and that they are lying too. She doesn't realize that they aren't lying. It isn't a guessing game. What to do about Sarah Palin? She is bad, bad news.

[HopeHoops]

1. She can see the truth from her house!

Well, only because she makes it up and tapes it to the wall.

[JDPriestly]

2. Love it, HopeHoops.

[timeforpeace]

13. She hasn't been taught to "Sit".

[juno jones]

3. Why does Sarah Palin breathe?

Both seem to be equally ingrained in her autonomic nervous system.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I think she may be ADD

or something (besides the obvious narcissistic personality disorder). She'll make some statement or other and not even realize that she said something 180 degrees different just a short while ago. You would think, knowing that people are scrutinizing every word she says, that she would pay more attention to consistency but she just says whatever is convenient for the audience she's in front of.

I've given up trying to figure out what goes on in her head.

[gratuitous]

5. What goes on in her head?

As we used to say back in the day, "There is no breeze stirring the windmills of her mind."

[Blue_In_AK]

6. Truer words were never spoken.

:rofl:

That calls for some lyrics:

Round,
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it’s face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of it’s own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half-forgotten dream
Like the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it’s face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly?
Was it something that I said?
Lovers walk along a shore
And leave their footprints in the sand
Was the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand?
Pictures hanging in a hallway
Or the fragment of a song
Half-remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the colour of her hair?

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

[JDPriestly]

7. Love that song. It describes a healthy brain-storming,

creative mind -- but not an effective strategic mind. Palin missed her calling. Maybe she should have been some sort of storyteller (not that she is literate enough for that). She just doesn't have a mind for politics or public policy. That doesn't mean she couldn't fake it. GWB faked it. But then GWB grew up on politics and public policy, so even though he didn't really have the mind for it, he at least was more familiar with the language and thought process of politics than Palin is.

[malaise]

10. Love that song

That was definitely a gratuitous DUzy. :hi:

[anigbrowl]

14. I've got ADD. It doesn't make you stupid or wildly inconsistent like that.

Possibly she does, but I don't think these kinds of armchair diagnoses are useful or informative.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. I meant no offense to people with ADD, ,

and I wasn't trying to make a joke at anybody's expense. Do you have a better explanation for why she can't seem to stay on task? Even as governor, she couldn't really stay engaged with the process. People in Juneau used to wear buttons that said "Where's Sarah" because she couldn't be bothered to show up. She likes running for things, but she doesn't want to work.

Maybe it's just laziness.

[malaise]

8. Palin has been lying all her life

She is totally disconnected from reality - it's all about Sarah imaginary world, her imaginary ability and her imaginary intelligence.

Add to that her narcissism and exhibitionist tendencies and I fear that she began lying very early - to survive -don't rule out incest. She displays many of the symptoms including masking obvious flaws by playing sexy. It will only get worse as she ages.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

9. Watching her facial expressions and speech pattern when

she makes a lame attempt to talk about policy makes me twitch.

Her interview with Hannity when she confused Iraq and Iran was a perfect example. She is just so uncomfortable and it makes me uncomfortable to watch.

[NRaleighLiberal]

11. in what regard, Charlie?

[Orsino]

12. She hasn't learned enough to do a lot of lying.

Mostly she just talks out of her ass.

[underpants]

15. Palin is talk radio in a much more appealling package

she is victim while simultaneously being the conquering hero-against "strawmen"

[Cleita]

17. Been thinking of whom she reminded me of and the ghosts of a

beauty queen and actress, who became involved in politics in the past, danced by in my memories. The lying and dishonesty goes with the genre, from the little five year old who was so cute in her party dress, who lied to get her way over and over and over again and the adults let her get away with it because she was so charming in the way she did it. There was also the uglier, vindictive side that lied to get enemies into trouble whom they perceived wronged them. When they grow up the lying and vindictiveness are still there. There is the taste for expensive things, pampering and only those things money can buy and beauty, charm and lies will get them there. There is also the irrational adoration of fans or constituents, however you want to view it. They were, of course, far right wing in their politics although they pretended to care about the little people. There's the lack of education and humble beginnings, but smart enough to be cunning and dangerous. Here's the two of them.

Imelda Marcos of the Philippines, crowned the Rose of Tacloban, became Miss Leyte and lost the title of Miss Manila, which she protested. By that time she has become well know enough to meet Ferdinand Marcos then a Congressman. She married him, he became President and then when in a position of power as First Lady set about settling scores with those whom she felt had wronged her on her way up. Her husband increased her power and his by appointing her to various government posts. Marcos was of course a dictator helped by his wife to keep his power. Her love of luxury, million dollar shopping sprees and closets full of shoes were disclosed when Ferdinand was toppled from power in 1986. She lied about how they obtained their wealth and yet was able to return from exile and run for President getting over 2,000,000 votes from no doubt adoring but uninformed voters who preferred to listen to the lies instead of learning the truth.

Eva Peron of Argentina. Now I lived in South America, in northern Chile on the other side of the Andes from Argentina, when Eva Person was at the height of her popularity when my father would tune his short wave radio in the years between 1948 and 1950 to pick up news of the outside world. We were very isolated in a mining camp in the Atacama desert back then. Often we would tune into speeches being delivered by Evita. The thunderous applause and shouting of "Evita" were uncomfortably reminiscent of Nazi Germany's adoration of Hitler. The text of her speeches were political with many lies mixed in yet there was no mistaking the frenzy of the crowd. I listened to this first hand when I was a child. It made a tremendous impression on me. I thought all political types got that kind of ovations. My father patiently explained the politics and the lies that kept her dictator husband in power. She even ran for Vice President. I don't remember if she got it or died before. Yet, the people adored her because she gave them many of the things they needed and pretended to care about them even while flaunting her jewels, Paris couture and mink coats before them, many who didn't even have shoes to wear. She of course also vindictively settled scores with the people whom she felt had snubbed her because of her humble and common origins. Since she died at a very young age, it's hard to know where she would have ended up.

Somehow Sarah, although she didn't have to hang onto the coat tails of a husband to gain power, reminds me so much of both of these ladies and their adoring, low information followers were no different than the idiots trailing after Sarah today.